FunWagon
Well-Known Member
I can totally relate to you... the SUPs, kayaks, out doors, big family, kids in water. Nice trailer. But how do you fit a family of five and a dog in the trailer and tent? Wow.
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Oh the current setup is tight for sure when the whole family is along.I can totally relate to you... the SUPs, kayaks, out doors, big family, kids in water. Nice trailer. But how do you fit a family of five and a dog in the trailer and tent? Wow.
That’s awesome. I am actually interested in large ground family tents. I looked around online, but never owned one or saw one in person. Which one do you have? … unless it’s too much trouble to find out then don’t worry.Oh the current setup is tight for sure when the whole family is along.
Our kids are young: 9, 8, & 6. At the moment they are fine with sleeping on top of each other. They have been camping that way since they were toddlers and they have always been 3-wide in a second row. The three of them fit fine in either the 3-man RTT or the trailer box.
For this previous trip we opted for a big ground tent so we ditched the RTT and used the trailer just for storage and carrying kayaks.
My wife prefers camping with the ground tent; it’s massive and fits 2 queens and 1 one twin air mattresses, two nights stands (storage boxes) with room to spare.
I’ve got room to add a second RTT on top
of the trailer so I’ve been working on my wife to try to get her to warm up to that setup because I like the idea of not dealing with ground tents/tarps after a rain. Our last 4 trips we have been rained on.
I really like the idea of the Opus 4 trailer but those are a little too heavy for a Wrangler in my opinion, a little more engineering than I’m interested in trying to duplicate on my own, and way too expensive for me to try to purchase. We are still learning about what works for us and tweaking our setup, but so far I’ve been really happy with it. Even on a trip where we don’t sleep in it, it provides storage for gear that we would never bring with just the Wrangler alone.
This is the one that we have, @FunWagon
https://www.amazon.com/CORE-Person-...core+camping+tent+large&qid=1631384977&sr=8-5
We like it, and I wouldn’t call it difficult, but man my friend brought a big instant tent (Ozark trail from Walmart) and I was blown away at how fast him and his wife were able to set it up. Those instant tents look like the way to go.
This looks like the same version as ours in an instant tent.
https://www.amazon.com/CORE-Person-...867&sr=8-9#video-immersive-view_1631384900102
Here is @thrasher ‘s tent.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ozark-Trail-11-Person-Instant-Cabin-Tent-with-Private-Room/54644006
Definitely doable. You would have to use thick-gauge aluminum if you wanted to do a frame with it. I would suggest using steel angle or tube for the frame for rigidity and a lot of cost savings over aluminum. Aluminum skins are the way to go for corrosion resistance and good looks. I found pre-painted aluminum panels for the exterior of this trailer.Dude this is awesome. I’m trading in my Tacoma for a wrangler and space will be at a premium in comparison. This is now on my list of interests.
I can Mig weld aluminum, which got me thinking. I wonder if it would be possible to build an aluminum skeleton with an aluminum sheet on the outside riveted to the skeleton. Then using foam board insulation and covering the inside with a thin sheet of plywood. I wonder what the strength/weight would be in comparison to doing a wooden version such as yours. The idea being to build something extremely lightweight but for 2 people to sleep inside of.
MAIDEN VOYAGE! We hooked her up and drug her down the road for the first time this past weekend. She rides well. It was a little bouncy at first but I chalked that up to tire pressure and no load. I am guessing that right now the whole thing weighs 700-800 lbs. I'll need to find some scales once I get all the accessories on here. I dropped the tire pressure from 30 to 15 and that did not change the tire shape at all. It did remove a little bit of the bounce. And when I say "bounce" I mean that I could tell there was a slight up and down motion that I could see in the rearview. My wife could not pick it up at all. So maybe I have high expectations for this little thing that still has Harbor Freight leaf springs with bushings only in the front eyes. I may end up having to replace the springs but at the moment I think the light-duty spring rate is going to be just fine as long as she doesn't get too heavy. This was an exciting day. It's been a lot of work! I started the build in February 2021 so it took about 3 months to get to this point working on it when I could.
It’s got a rack on top. Sometimes when we leave the rooftop tent at home and opt to bring our big ground tent we will throw the paddle boards or a kayak on top of the trailer. It pulls great on the highway. We’ve done a handful of 500 mile trips to the beach and a couple up to the mountains running 75-80. I do wish I had some tow mirrors so that I could see the trailer tires and when I pull in the mountains it really makes me want to regear the Jeep. We are running 37s.This is such a beautiful build. So well done. After using for a season, any thoughts of adding a rack to the top for the kayaks? Also how did it do with highway miles?
I love those half doors! I had a white TJ back in the day with half doors. Wish I had them on the JL.It is a really nice build. Last summer I bought one of these Harbor Freight trailers. But I wouldn’t know how to turn it into what you did. Doesn’t it have a load limit of a little over 1,000 pounds?
This is from before I got the lift: